Lucky to Be Alive
by Foxie
Summary: Weiß is sent to a mission abroad and starting from the departure, nothing seems to go as planned.
1. Chapter I

**Chapter I**  
  
It was early morning in the international airport of Narita, where the traffic was always immense. People were coming and going, destinations different for everyone. Polite announcements for leaving and arriving flights added to the atmosphere and always caused some kind of movement in the crowd.   
  
Also the TV screens informing the travelers about the arrivals and departures were targets of keen attention.  
  
"Well fuck."  
  
"Delayed until further notice? Is that even legal?"  
  
A group of four men was staring at the screen of departures; each one of them looking slightly disappointed and somewhat frustrated.   
  
"Why does it always have to be our plane?" A boy with blonde hair and blue eyes wondered and tightened his grip on his bag.   
  
"Karma."  
  
"Well that is just hilarious, Aya. Fucking ironical. We get a mission and a vacation for doing it right and then we can't even reach our destination."  
  
Indeed, these four were the invincible hunters of the light, Weiß, and indeed, they had been assigned for a mission to hunt down a top class criminal leader who had sadly enough managed to flee from Japan. Therefore the group had to follow him to Britain where Kritiker had tracked him down.   
  
"Someone should go and ask what's keeping the plane," Aya noted and looked at the other three. Yoji was seemingly very pissed and looked like he was craving for a cigarette. Omi had a worried expression on his face and he still stared at the screen as if trying to make sure that it wasn't just an optical illusion they all shared and Ken... Well, the brunette had dug up a worn out napkin from the pocket of his jeans and was now folding a paper airplane out of it.  
  
"Hidaka, you look like you have some spare time."  
  
Ken lifted his gaze from the pathetic excuse of an origami and looked at Aya questioningly. He had obviously not been paying too much attention to the conversation.  
  
"You. Run to get some information about why the plane is late."  
  
"Oh, yeah." Ken put the paper airplane back into his pocket and took off.  
  
"This is a big building, Ayan, he'll get lost," Yoji noted, his voice mockingly worried.  
  
"Guess twice if that's the point."  
  
"That is just cruel," Omi mentioned, "Care for coffee?" he added and pointed at the direction of a café nearby. Looking exactly like airport cafés usually did, it most likely had prices that would give Aya a small heart attack, but it did serve coffee, nevertheless.   
  
"And a cigarette. And something with alcohol," Yoji added to the list and practically ran to find a free table. The two others followed him, their steps a little less hurried. Yoji offered to get them what they wanted and left to the counter.  
  
Aya sighed deeply and glared at a commercial stand with a picture of a woman in illegally little clothing promoting some sort of 'exotic and sensual' new perfume. Commercials were becoming more and more shameless nowadays.   
  
"Annoys me, too," Omi noted, apparently having misjudged the source of Aya's frustration. "Week is a very little time to complete a mission in any case, and now we have even less time because of the damn plane."  
  
Aya didn't reply. He simply kept staring into the distance.   
  
After a moment Yoji came back carrying a tray with three cups of black coffee and a bottle of something that looked heavily alcoholic. He put them down on the table and sat down himself, placing a cigarette on his lips. Omi lifted an eyebrow at this and pointed at the "No smoking" sign just above Yoji's head.  
  
"Damn," Yoji sighed and put the cigarette back to the pack. "Oh, well, one of the two has got to be good enough."  
  
The tree of them sipped their coffees in silence until Omi spoke up.  
  
"I hope there's nothing terribly messed up. The cause of the delay, I mean."  
  
Yoji sniggered. "Wouldn't a broken engine be fun? Or even better: two broken engines?"  
  
"Don't beg for bad things to happen, Kudou," Aya warned.   
  
They all lifted their gazes when they heard footsteps approaching the table, only to see Ken returning - obviously not lost.  
  
"So? What is it?" Omi asked, honestly interested.  
  
Ken shrugged. "They said something about the plane leaving at one o'clock at the earliest. Damages in two engines or something like that," he told and sat down with the others.  
  
Aya turned to glare at Yoji, who grinned sheepishly, taking a long gulp of his alcohol-filled drink.  
  
"Leave me the rest of that," Aya ordered.

* * *

After six hours of waiting and nine hours of flying, the four finally arrived in Heathrow. A luggage-reclaim later they headed for the underground to travel to their hotel near Kensington Gardens. Each one of them dozed from time to time but the knowledge of the fact that they would miss their stop if they all fell asleep kept them up.   
  
They took a cab from the station and as they finally got into the lobby of the three-star hotel Kritiker had booked for them Yoji was something between asleep and dead and the others were just otherwise exhausted and swore never to place a foot on an airport ever again. Omi was the only one of them awake enough to go and check them in into their rooms.   
  
It appeared that Kritiker had decided to save money and had only reserved two rooms, but the four of them were too tired to complain.   
  
"Who wants to drag him up?" Ken asked, yawning, and pointed at Yoji who was fast asleep on an armchair. The younger half of Weiß turned to look expectantly at Aya who made a despairing face.   
  
"You are not serious," he complained. The other two nodded, grinning sadistically.   
  
"Have fun," Ken said and added a wishing of good night before stepping into the elevator with Omi. Aya was left alone in the lobby, trying desperately either to wake Yoji up or to get a proper hold of him so he could drag the taller man up to where their room was. After countless efforts he managed to get the zombie-like body up and haul it into the elevator with him.   
  
He predicted that the week was ought to be pure hell.

* * *

Ken's dream about sweet pillows and blankets up in the clouds was disturbed by an irksome, beeping sound which refused to end. Drowsily he blinked the sleep from his eyes and pushed himself into a sitting position on his bed. He began to look for the source of the damned annoying beeping only to notice it was his own fine watch that was making the noise. It took him some time to find out how in the hell the sound would stop but he did succeed, eventually.   
  
Omi had also been awoken by the sound and was now trying his best to hide under his pillow and covers. As if it hadn't been enough that the plane had been late, he was also suffering from a severe case of jetlag.   
  
"I don't need to get up, do I? You can get the baddie without me, right?" he asked from under his pillow, trying to sound as small and vulnerable as possible.   
  
"You're the brains."  
  
Omi forced himself to get up, taking a hold of the wall in process and doing his best not to crash back to the sweet land of sleep.   
  
"What time is it?" he asked.  
  
Ken glanced at his watch. "According to this thing it's 6 AM, but I don't quite believe it."  
  
"Take nine hours off of it. You get 9 PM. We've slept a little over six hours."  
  
"Pay it forward. Wake up the oldies."  
  
Aya awoke to the sound of a phone ringing next to his ear and grabbed it haphazardly, dropping a menu-card and an ashtray to the floor in progress.  
  
"What?" was his groggy greeting to whoever it was in the other end.   
  
"Hi!" rang Omi's ear-wrenchingly perky voice through the receiver.  
  
"What do you want?" Aya asked, rubbing the bridge of his nose. He hadn't thought he'd be this much affected by the time-difference.   
  
"We need to plan the mission. Or at least figure out how we can find the targ- hold on a second."  
  
Aya waited patiently. He heard that some sort of conversation was had in the other room but couldn't make much of it. After a moment he heard Omi's voice again.  
  
"All we need to do is to plan the mission. He will be in Chinatown for some business tomorrow - Ken just got a message from Manx – so it will be pretty easy. Especially if it will be little bit further from the busiest area - the restaurant the meeting he's attending to is held in, that is."  
  
"Very much likely. Unless he is feeling lucky," Aya commented.  
  
"I doubt it. Should we meet up in your room in fifteen minutes?"  
  
Aya nodded and after having realized Omi didn't see it, said: "Fine, I'll try to get him up before that." With 'him' he was referring to Yoji who had showed no signs of waking up.   
  
"All right, see you in a while then."  
  
Aya hung up the phone and swung his legs over the side of his bed. He yawned and took a look at the blond in the bed opposite his. He was sleeping like a log, his blanket tightly gathered around him and his breathing steady. Well, there was no choice.  
  
"Yoji?" he tried the soft way first.   
  
"Are you alive?" he asked and reached his foot to kick Yoji's side. The man didn't as much as stir.   
  
Aya raised an eyebrow. If anything else wouldn't work he'd have to get some cold water.   
  
"Lazy prick..." he muttered to himself and stood up. He got his sweater from the back of a chair where he had discarded the article the night before, and put it on. Then he glared at Yoji for a while.   
  
He thought for a moment. He could scare Yoji awake, he knew it was bound to work, but the question was what would be the most effective way of scaring?  
  
Aya could have sworn that a little light bulb lit up above his head as he came up with a truly cruel idea. He walked beside Yoji's bed and knelt down. He glared for one more moment; just to make sure Yoji really was asleep, so he wouldn't make a complete fool out of himself. Yoji was asleep. No doubt there.  
  
The redhead reached a bit further so that his lips were only inches away from Yoji's ear. He then blew out a little air and watched how Yoji stirred a slightly. Actually he was glad that the blonde didn't wake up yet. He traced his fingers along Yoji's jawbone and then leaned even closer to his ear.  
  
"Good morning loverboy," he said in his most lisp tone and just as expected, hearing those words spoken out by a male-voice made Yoji snap out of his dream.   
  
Aya stood up. "Get your ass up. We need to plan a mission."  
  
Yoji stared at Aya for a moment, thought about the odd voice he had heard whispering to his ear and then decided against it. Aya did not have that twisted sense of humor. His own mind was the one doing weird things, he decided.   
  
"Time is it?"   
  
"Past nine. In the evening."  
  
"Why am I up at nine in the evening?"  
  
"Because we have a mission to plan, just as I said. Futsuyaki will be in Chinatown tomorrow evening and Omi and Ken will be here in a few minutes to give out the more specific details."  
  
"Why do we have a fucking mission-planning at fucking 9 PM?"  
  
"You have slept more than any of us so you shouldn't have anything to complain," Aya commented and sat down on the chair his sweater had inhabited few moments back.   
  
Yoji groaned and sat up on his bed.  
  
"Why am I dressed?" he asked after observing himself for a moment.  
  
"Because after I had dragged you unconscious being up here I didn't feel like stripping you. "  
  
"I might have confused you to a molester."  
  
"Most likely."  
  
There was a pause during which Yoji thought again if he should ask Aya if he had been whispering lewd things to him just moments before he had woken up, but, once again, decided against it. If Aya hadn't, he would think Yoji had hidden desires and if he had, Yoji would have to think of Aya as a sick, twisted person who entertained himself by scaring innocent fellow roommates.   
  
A knock on the door broke the silence. Aya stood up from his chair and opened the door to let the two other members of Weiß in.  
  
"Sleep well?" Omi asked casually, knowing very well that he had woken at least Aya up.  
  
"Too little," Yoji complained. "So, what do we have?"  
  
The four sat down around a sad excuse of a table in the corner of the room, which was most likely supposed to pose as the 'lounge' they had been promised.   
  
"Ken went to get a restaurant guide from the reception, it should have the address of the-"  
  
"It does. Here." Ken put the guide to the table and pointed at the name of the restaurant. It had been given only one star and there had obviously been nothing too good to say about the service or the food, since there was nothing aside from the name, the star rating and the address in the booklet.   
  
"Suits him well. According to the information Manx gave us, he will be there at six tomorrow night. Two bodyguards and a driver plus the bodyguards of the man he has the appointment with. Kritiker wasn't sure about the number of them, but I think we should be able to take down Futsuyaki and his guards before he gets," Omi explained.  
  
"The bodyguards aren't armed with anything but pistols. Sucks if they are good at aiming fast and unnoticed," Ken added. "Otherwise they should be pretty easy."  
  
"What about civilians? Is there a chance they might see anything?" Aya asked, knowing very well what the fate of the unfortunate by-passers would be.   
  
"It is a part of Chinatown, no matter what. We have to be extremely cautious. There won't be many people around. It would be for the best if we could get Futsuyaki and his guards to even more isolated place, but no can do."  
  
"We could ask him," Yoji suggested. The three others turned to look at him as if he just had grown a second head.  
  
"I mean, if his guards are what most criminal leaders' gorillas are – all muscle and no brain – it'll be easy to fool them."  
  
"Even if we could fool the bodyguards, there'd still be his driver and Futsuyaki himself."  
  
"Listen, one of his bodyguards is bound to be left outside to keep watch, right? So, Mr. Ice-block here-" Yoji pointed at Aya who frowned at the comment, "- will go to him and give him a little glimpse of the Blade of Death. The brainless ape will either be scared shitless and run or go and get the big boss if the Man with the Big Bad Sword tells him to do so. "  
  
"You need to sleep more," Aya commented.  
  
"I agree. But I think you do have a point somewhere there," Ken admitted. "Aya, you can be quite persuasive and even you have to admit that bodyguards are afraid of the combination of your katana and that shi-NE!-glare."  
  
"Why do we suddenly think I'm some sort of a scary block of ice?" Aya asked, upset.  
  
"That's because you are," Omi said and coughed. "Anyway, that might work," he rolled his eyes at this, "But we need to have a plan B – or more likely a proper plan A."  
  
"Are you implying that I don't have the gift of planning missions? I'm the one who was PI, remember?"  
  
"The key-word is 'was'," Aya reminded, receiving a mean glance from the blonde.   
  
"Any suggestions?" Omi asked and looked at the three others. A heavy silence fell.  
  
"So we just lure him into a dark alley along with his bodyguards and kill him there?"  
  
The silence was still there.  
  
"Actually I'm glad we get to have a little time off after the mission's over. We all need rest if this is the best we can come up with," Omi shook his head.  
  
TBC.

* * *

Reviews very warmly welcome.  
  
Further info about the fic in livejournal.com/users/fokushii 


	2. Chapter II

**

* * *

**

Chapter II  
  
The rain had begun sometime around midnight and had kept Aya awake since then. Now, few hours before the dawn, he really felt like sleeping. He laid on his bed, listening the pounding rain, the noises of the city and Yoji's even breathing. If there was a silent moment, he closed his eyes and tried to catch sleep. It was no use. His mind was tired yet his body refused to act along.   
  
Aya took another glance on Yoji's watch the man had left on the bedside table. 4:56 AM. The redhead sighed deeply and ran his hand through his hair. He needed to rest. There was no question about it.   
  
A low rumble was heard through the window and thick curtains. Now, a thunder would be just what he needed to be able to sleep.   
  
With another deep and frustrated sigh he swung his legs over the side of his bed and sat there for a moment with his head in his hands. If it was Tokyo he was in and if it wasn't raining, he would go out for a quick jog around the neighborhood. But, obviously, it wasn't Tokyo he was in and it was, in fact, raining.   
  
He stood up, walked by the window and carefully pulled the curtains aside. The hotel wasn't quite in the busiest area of London and therefore there weren't too many people walking the streets. And the rain, most likely, as well as the early hours had something to do with the small amount of by-passers.   
  
There would be a mission tomorrow – no, today – and the four didn't have a proper plan. Yoji's suggestion most likely was nothing more than a joke and thus couldn't be used. It would be easiest just to go into the restaurant, kill everyone in sight and then run back to the hotel.   
  
Aya grunted to himself. His plan wasn't much better from Yoji's.  
  
He mentally viewed the map of the area the restaurant was in and tried to create a picture of the surroundings. He managed to come up with a somewhat proper vision, but it most likely differed too much from the original to be valid. He needed to see the place before being able to do any planning.  
  
There had been a map on the table few hours before and it still lay there. Aya grabbed it and quickly located their hotel close to Lancaster Gate underground station. He then looked for the location of China Town and once it was found, he eyed the map for a moment longer, pondering for the wisest route. He knew there was no danger of being attacked by their "enemies" since he wasn't officially on a mission yet, but still he wasn't too interested in walking along the main streets. After a while of consideration he came to the conclusion that he'd take a seemingly innocent walk though Hyde Park and then pass through some of the smaller streets until he'd hit Regent Street. From there he'd walk down Shaftesbury Avenue and further to China Town.   
  
Aya kept the basic look of his route in mind and repeated it multiple times while getting dressed. When he was certain he'd remember it even in his sleep, he took his coat and headed towards the door. He had already opened it when he remembered something; he couldn't just up and leave without knowing the time. Without a thought he snatched Yoji's watch from the bedside table and took off.   
  
The park was peaceful. The gates had apparently been opened just a little before Aya reached them and there were only one or two people in the park itself. Probably some sport-enthusiasts who needed to start their day at 5 AM with a nice jog amidst the mighty trees no matter if it was raining or not. In fact, the rain had let go a little, Aya noticed. It was but a drizzle anymore.  
  
Aya didn't hurry his steps but didn't hold up either. It had been fifteen past five when he had entered the park and he had calculated that he'd be back in about an hour and a half. If everything went well, that was.   
  
He was quite determinate that there was nothing that might keep him from doing his investigations, but one could never be too careful. For a brief moment he thought about turning back and getting a weapon of some sort but then he remembered that he had Yoji's watch. He had used it before and knew how it worked, so it would serve as protection if there ever was need for it.   
  
The distance between Hyde Park and Gerrard Street was quickly done and Aya stood by the gates of China Town. He didn't even consider taking a look at the central area but directly headed for the outer regions. The restaurant he was looking for could be found somewhere around there.   
  
Finding what he was looking for took him a half an hour and this caused him to silently curse his destroyed schedule. Walking in the chilly rain wasn't too pleasant, either.   
  
The restaurant was indeed in the shadiest end of the area and seemed to be quite innocent. Of course, that was the point. And besides, it wasn't the particular restaurant that was their target, but the man who would do some business in there later that day.  
  
"Taking a little walk, eh?"  
  
Aya turned around when he heard the words spoken in Japanese. He was faced with a typical Japanese man in his early forties. Aya pulled out a little wire from the watch.  
  
"As a matter of fact, yes," he replied and hoped that the conversation wouldn't be too long. He was already late from his earlier plans. "And I was just about to return," he added, trying to hint the other man that he wasn't into a long conversation with a stranger.   
  
"You are, eh?" the man huffed. "An interesting place isn't it? Would serve well as a criminal hide-out or such," he noted.   
  
This alerted Aya. The man didn't play honest game here – nor did he, but it was another thing – and Aya wasn't interested in seeing how the game would end. He told the man he should already be on his way back and turned to leave.   
  
He stopped when he heard a click of a gun behind his back.   
  
"I don't think so," he heard the man say. "You look like someone who might be sneaking around."  
  
"And I presume you don't?" Aya replied calmly while turning to face the man again.   
  
"Oh, but I'm a whole other thing," the man replied and grinned slyly. "Now, who do you work for and why?"  
  
This was, without a doubt, one of Futsuyaki's henchmen Aya was facing. The man would demand Aya to give him information and whether or not he gave it he'd end up dead. The only option was to send the man to meet his maker, before Aya himself would.   
  
Aya hid his hand to his sleeve and pulled out a little more wire.  
  
"Do you think I would actually tell you?" he asked. He needed to get the man distracted if he wanted the privilege of a surprise attack.   
  
The man stared back at him and quickly dropped his gaze – along with his gun - towards Aya's sleeve. "Whatever you're hiding in there; drop it," he commanded.   
  
Aya took advantage of the moment and the lowered gun. He yanked the weapon from the man's hand and had him stilled with the wire before he even realized what had happened. The wire was neatly wrapped around the man's neck but Aya didn't quite strangle him yet – he still had use for him.   
  
"Who are you?" the man asked with a choked voice.  
  
Aya grinned briefly. He loved it when they asked this.   
  
"Weiß," he replied dramatically and tightened the wire around the man's neck a little.   
  
"Do you work for Futsuyaki?" he then asked with his most demanding tone. The man barely nodded.  
  
"Will he be able to tell?"  
  
"What?" the man swallowed the end of the word.   
  
"That you are dead," Aya declared and the man shook his head.   
  
"Thank you," Aya nodded and broke the man's neck. The body fell limp to the ground and Aya dragged it into the shadows, hoping no one would find it until after Weiß had completed their mission. The redhead then took off as if he had never been in the alley.  
  
He could really understand why Yoji liked his wire.

* * *

It was already half past seven when Aya opened the door of their hotel room and stepped in. Yoji appeared to still be asleep. Therefore the redhead tried to push the door close as silently as possible but forgot the fact that it didn't work for hotel-room doors, and so the door slammed shut, probably causing a mirror to shatter somewhere in the lower floors.   
  
Yoji stirred and groggily opened his eyes. It took him a moment to focus his gaze on Aya who was standing in front of the door with a soaking wet coat on.   
  
"What time is it?" the blonde asked with a great yawn and rubbed his eyes.  
  
Aya glanced at the watch on his wrist and told it was about half past seven. Yoji nodded to the information and repeated the question he had asked in the night before: Why in the hell was he awake in such early hours? He received no answer.   
  
"Wait," Yoji said. Aya turned towards him. "Is that my watch?" the blonde asked.  
  
"Yes," Aya replied simply as he took off his coat and left it over a back of a chair. The garment soon created a little pool on the carpet.   
  
Now Yoji was forced to really wake up in order to do some thinking. He sat up and leaned to a wall behind his back. He then glared at Aya from under his brows.   
  
"Where the hell have you been?" he asked, putting the stress on the word 'hell'.   
  
"Out."  
  
Aya didn't explain any further. He only sat down on his bed, took the watch off his wrist and then put it back on the bedside table.   
  
"Did you kill anyone?" Yoji sighed.  
  
"I did."  
  
Yoji sighed again and rolled his eyes. "Who and why?"  
  
"One of Futsuyaki's henchmen. He had a gun against my head." Aya took off his sweater and threw it to the direction of his coat. Yoji couldn't help but to think if Aya's famous neatness only ruled his actions when he was at home.   
  
"Tell me you at least got some information," Yoji said blankly.   
  
"We already know all we need to know," Aya told.  
  
Yoji sighed in frustration. "What the hell possessed you to go out this early in the morning, anyway?"  
  
"You wouldn't believe me if I said I was having a little walk outside China Town, would you?"  
  
"I wouldn't."  
  
Aya just shrugged. "Too bad."  
  
It was a little past eight when all the four of them gathered together in the dining hall of the hotel to have breakfast. The mission wasn't mentioned by a single word except for Yoji's brief notion on how Aya had done a little research on his own. Omi gave the redhead a criticizing look that told him a scolding would follow.   
  
The four ate their toasts and drank their teas in silence and then gathered to Omi and Ken's room for a little meeting.   
  
"Aya," Omi began and looked at the redhead with an expression of a mother who is about to lecture her children about bad behavior.   
  
"There's an alcove just opposite the restaurant. It's full of cardboard-boxes and trashcans and because of the shadows it'll be easy to hide in there. There is only one possible place to park a car and it's in front of the restaurant. It'll be more than easy to take out the driver and at least some of the guards before the target returns from his meeting," Aya explained. Omi was still glaring at him.  
  
"You said it's easy to hide in the shadows. What if someone just happened to be hiding in the shadows you mentioned and just happened to see you when you were walking by The Mighty, Famous Shadows?" he asked sarcastically.  
  
"Someone did see him," Yoji told, and Omi's glare turned few shades darker.  
  
"I killed him," Aya defended himself. "There was no one else there, I can assure you. And the body won't be found in a while."  
  
"Did you ever pay a single thought to the possibility that if Futsuyaki hears that one of his men has been killed, he'll cancel his meeting?" Omi asked despairingly.   
  
"He won't have time. And he has a league of assistants. He won't be able to tell if one of them disappears, nor do I think he'd care."  
  
Omi hung his head in defeat. This was Aya anyhow - the man who though before he did and even did the thinking with an incredible speed and accuracy. What could one do but to trust his sense of judgment? But only if the said sense of judgment wasn't used to judge someone whose name began with 'Taka' and ended with 'tori'.   
  
"All right. You got us information even though you put our team and all our asses on the line. Great. What now?"  
  
Ken stopped throwing and catching a miniature soccer-ball he had and spoke up. "Would planning the mission be too bad?" The others turned to look at him and simultaneously raised their eyebrows.  
  
"What?" Ken shrugged. "Just a suggestion."

TBC

* * *

Feedback is still welcome and once again there's a little more info in my livejournal (address in the previous chapter or in my user bio).


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